Best of Friends and Enemies
by Darkorbra
Summary: Prequel to the Third Gorgon, this is the backstory of Palutena and Medusa told in the point of view of Palutena. It is heavily inspired by Greek Mythology.
1. Chapter 1

**BEST OF FRIENDS AND ENEMIES**

**UNTOLD TALE OF LIGHT**

"Hello there, my dear patrons. You're probably human, so you haven't lived long enough to have lived through the last great Titan War, and to tell you the truth, neither have I, so let me share my wisdom with you and we can experience the journey we never took together right here and now. You probably know that I am an Olympian Goddess. We are the current ruling family of gods of the world, you know, but I don't know for how much longer. It is natural for the younger gods to overthrow the older gods once they've overstayed their welcome. And ironically, that's exactly what happened to the older generation of gods, the Titans. They became too complacent in their rule and that was their downfall.

My father is Zeus, the king of gods. Like many of us gods, he didn't exactly have a normal upbringing. Even as a new-born, he was in mortal danger. His father Cronus had swallowed all of his elder siblings (sound familiar?), and if wasn't for my grandmother, and his mother, Rhea, he would have met the same fate (well, depending on which version of the story you think is canon. I'm a goddess, but can you really believe me? I suppose you got no choice when I'm supposed to be the Goddess of Light!) Well anyway, all of us gods are direct descendants of the primordial Earth Goddess, Gaea, the living embodiment of the Earth. Gaea was Cronus's mother, you see, and she prophesised that his offspring would one day depose him, so that's why he did the horrid things he did to his own children. But Rhea had tricked Cronus and he believed that he had swallowed Zeus too, but Zeus escaped.

Zeus returned and freed his siblings from the imprisonment of Cronus's belly. Don't worry, us gods are lot more hardy than you guys, so we can be a little difficult to digest. How he managed to free his devoured brothers and sisters from his father's stomach of steel is a little bit disgusting, so I'll spare the details in order to avoid nauseating you and causing you to stop reading. What, you're saying most of you would have probably left before making it this far? Okay, but you should know the only thing that was important was that he saved his siblings, and they were all fully grown gods and goddesses when Cronus... Errrr… I'll leave the rest to your imagination!

Anyway, as you can imagine, they weren't happy with the way their father treated them, so naturally they wanted to overthrow him. Ironically, in his efforts to avert the uprising of his offspring, Cronus had created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Together, led by Zeus, the sibling gods Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Hera and Poseidon led a revolt against their father and the rest of the Titans. Many other gods joined in the struggle, being promised their fair share of the empire of the Titans when it was carved up. After a devastating conflict which tore the Earth to pieces, after much death and sacrifice, the Olympians defeated Cronus and the Titans and imprisoned them in Tartarus for their crimes. Tartarus a hellish place beneath the Underworld where you definitely do not want to go when you pass away, so be on best behaviour you lot! Now where was I? Oh yes, now that the Titans were gone, the three brothers partitioned the spoils of their victory amongst themselves. Zeus took over his father's former realm of Mount Olympus and the heavens, the middle brother Poseidon ruled over the waves of the ocean and Hades, the eldest of the three, inherited the Underworld. Perhaps receiving the thin end of the stick despite being the oldest was why he abused the souls of the dead, who knows? Is it even possible to psychoanalyze someone like Hades?

The way I was born was a little strange… to say the least. I had to be cut out of my father's head by my brothers and sisters. Sounds weird? You've heard nothing yet! You're probably wondering how that's even possible. Well, let's start from the beginning and let's see if you can wrap it around your tiny heads… Not to be condescending or anything! As you know, I've already talked about my father a lot, but what about my mother, you ask? Let's just say him and my mother had something a bit more than a love-hate relationship. My father had eaten Metis, my mother, because he feared the power of any children he might father with her, according to prophecy given to him by Gaea. Like father like son, huh? But we'll get to that later. When my father swallowed my mother, it was already too late: I had already been conceived and my mother gave birth to me inside my father's… innards. So I had been an unborn goddess growing inside my mother who was living inside my father. Gah, this isn't being explained well at all! But you already know how the story ends.

But anyway, despite trying to kill me before I even existed, I developed a very close relationship with my father. He appointed me as the ruler Skyworld, a realm suspended in the heavens inhabited by the angels. Remember that one time when I said that humans are the closest beings to the gods? Well yeah, that's… not quite true… well, it is but… well let me explain! The humans were spawned by Gaea, Mother Earth, as mortal beings that were most in likeness to the gods. But the angels were spawned as an intermediate level between humans and gods, but unlike humans they were immortal. And they could fly, except for a certain one… Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent! Whenever I do that, just kick me or something, okay? Wait! Maybe that's not such a good idea. Maybe just a little nudge? But not too hard, or Pit will have you.

When Mount Olympus appointed me as the patroness of both angels and humanity, and it was my responsibility to look after the wellbeing of both angel-kind and humankind. And you all know that we gods are given some element or concept to look after, some part of the world that we personify. It was my job to administer light and wisdom across the globe, to bless humanity and banish the darkness. To this end, I became revered by both the humans and angels. Who am I, you ask? Have you all been living under a rock? Well, I have lots of names. Some call me Pallas Athena, others call me Minerva. But I'm probably best known to you as… Palutena! The Goddess of Light!"


	2. Chapter 2

**BEST OF FRIENDS AND ENEMIES**

**UNTOLD TALE OF DARKNESS**

"Okay, so I probably bored you to death with my backstory, but this is where it gets interesting… Before the Titans, there was an even older family of gods, perhaps the oldest family of gods in the entire divine pantheon. There was a primordial sea god known as Lord Phorcys: people refer to him as the old man of the sea these days. He ruled over a vast undersea empire of sea monsters and creatures of the ocean. Both he and his sister-wife, Ceto, were begotten by Gaea and Pontus. Gaea was the goddess of the Earth, as you know, and Pontus was the living spirit of the sea (maybe I should mention that they were also mother and son. Do think that's weird?) Phorcys and Ceto were the second generation of the primordial gods, and together, they had many children, most of whom were monsters, but they had three daughters whom would become of great importance. This trio was known as the Gorgons.

The Gorgons begun life as beautiful sea deities and wielded powerful magic. Stheno was the eldest, and she was truly immortal and could revive herself whenever slain, just like the Immortal Phoenix could. The middle sister was named Euryale, and she too had this gift to bring herself back to life: not even Hades had that ability. But the youngest and the most beautiful of the three was Medusa, and I'm sure you all know who she is. And no, despite fan speculation, she is not my sister, not by blood at least anyway. But about Medusa, she had a fatal weakness: she could not revive herself after being killed like her sisters could. This made her vulnerable.

Phorcys, the Lord of the Sea Monsters, ruled the sea for eons before even the first Titans appeared. When his father Pontus had been deposed by the Titan Oceanus, Phorcys and the other sea gods were forced to submit to the younger gods. Once the Titans had been defeated, the rule of the ocean had been given over to Poseidon. Because her son had to accept kingship from the younger unruly gods, the matriarch of the primal gods, Gaea, had told the Olympian gods that if they did not compensate Phorcys and his direct descendants in some way, there would be consequences. She told them that they would have to concede some of their gained territory to the future daughters of Phorcys.

After the Titan war, the Gorgons were born. By Gaea's decree, rule over Skyworld was to be split with the most beautiful daughter of Phorcys: her granddaughter Medusa. I remember as clear as day when I first met the young Medusa. Back then, her beauty was unparalleled, as she began life as a beautiful sea deity. I never thought of her as a bad person. She said to me:

'Palutena, Goddess of Light, my name is Medusa, daughter of Phorcys, the old man of the sea. Me and my sisters, Euryale and Stheno, offer our services to you. We want to do our best to please you, my Lady.'

I sensed no malice in Medusa's heart. I then asked her:

'Medusa, daughter of the sea, what is it you want?'

'I only want to live here with my sisters. We lost our home when the Titans took over.' She responded.

'You have powerful magic, don't you?' I said to her. 'You must use it for good, not for evil.'

'You have my word, Lady Palutena.' Medusa said. 'We heard how benevolent you are. We only wish to put things right.'

'Medusa, I can sense you and I will become very good friends.' Palutena said. 'Stay true to your word, and you will be rewarded.'

And as Gaea willed it, we ruled Skyworld and the human realm together. Medusa was also appointed to rule darkness in order to maintain the celestial balance. She was no longer just a member of a family of has-been immortals: she was now my equal and my antithesis, and as I ruled the day she ruled the night. But my eye was not the only one she caught: my uncle, Lord Poseidon of the waves became infatuated with her, mesmerized by her sheer beauty. He often came to Skyworld to see her.

But it became clear that Medusa had a strong disdain for the human race. Even though her family had protected and gave safe passage to humans that entered their domain since the dawn of humanity, when the Titans took over, the humans abandoned their support for the ancient sea gods and supported the revolting younger gods instead. Medusa deeply resented them for this. She also believed that they threatened the creatures that lived in the night, the beings she had patronage over. And things were about change for the worst.

A number of gods were complaining that the humans a breeding uncontrollably and were desecrating the earth wherever they went. The divine pantheon told me I needed to control them. I refused, but if only I had listened. So Medusa, who had a deep desire to wipe the human race off the face of the Earth, was brought in as 'pest control', as she so delicately put it. Where I would bless humanity, she would curse humanity. She was told to control the human population explosion and she did so with pleasure. She was there simply to undermine all the work I had done. I often was at war with my own co-ruler. Had the other gods allowed it, she would have driven the human race to extinction.

The friction between us continued. She often met with Poseidon in our temple. One day, I discovered that they had desecrated the temple by making love in there. Medusa claimed that Poseidon had done so against her will: I pretty much took everything Medusa said with a grain of salt at this point in our relationship. In retrospect, I don't know what the truth was, but what I did know was that she honestly believed her story was the truth, and I could tell that she had been left deeply disturbed. She vowed to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth regardless of the consequences against her from the other gods, and she kept true to her threats. I had to do what I did to protect the human race.

'Medusa, I should have read in your heart that you were completely mad!' I said to her.

'I am the daughter of the primordial gods!' She replied. 'My family were here long before yours. You are the one that is mad: mad enough to have such blind faith in the faithless mortals.'

'The time of the primordial gods has long passed.' I said to her. 'Surrender now, or face the consequences.'

'What are you going to do, oh Goddess of Light?' She sneered. 'Kill me?'

'Your punishment will be far worse than that.' I told her.

Then we fought the most bitter battle we ever fought. After making the biggest sacrifice of my life, I finally defeated Medusa. True to my word, I did something far worse to her than kill her. I turned her hair into snakes and sent her into the deep, dark Underworld, but now I realise that was the biggest mistake I made in my entire life…


End file.
